Fug

I had a Toyota knitting machine briefly last year. It was very pretty, being cream and red and had hardly been used. I sold it on after the MKKI day, but discovered there's no "what fits what" table for these machines, so I've started one here. It's still a work in progress, so if you can help me correct it or add further info to it, please email me on the address at the right. I understand the whole range was immediately withdrawn after a visit by Toyota staff to the UK. When the CEO's wife discovered that Knitmaster and Brother were considered "the best" in Europe at the time, she demanded that production stopped. And it did. This is according to Anne of MKM. Talk about the tail wagging the dog! I didn't really play with mine enough to get a feel for it, but users say they are lovely machines to work with. Spares are very scarce now of course.

Himself has gone off to Austria for a week's snowboarding - the flight was delayed two hours whilst they changed 'planes. Trying to decide between a weekend of jaunts to local towns for shopping etc or a weekend in - it'll partly depend on whether or not it decides to snow. Feeling a bit headachey with brain fug, and although I intended a trip to the gym tonight I might just stay in and hit the exercise bike instead.

Dream week 2012

I'm almost tempted to put NOT! after that title - not because I didn't enjoy the week, but because I didn't get much sleep, and the one night I did, I managed to have a nightmare about the cat going missing - I was always too hot, too cold. Ruddy insomnia - I can never get the hang of hotel beds somehow, and nothing seems to knock me out. Well, copious alcohol does, but it's not a restful sleep and anyway it wasn't that kind of event!!! Maybe it was just so inspiring that my brain refused to switch off at night?! :)

Decided to do a one-post recap this year, as I didn't have much time to put the laptop on and do a day-by-day breakdown this year.

Well, the week began with my getting to the Crewe area in good time, but then spending an hour trying to find the hotel - himself has borrowed the satnav - and eventually giving up and heading for Metropolitan. I can always find that shop, perhaps it's the yarn-radar?! The poor eyesight doesn't help, as Northwich and Middlewich look very similar to Nantwich on a signpost and all the "wiches" are in that area! It means salt flats, apparently!

The first lecture was a very interesting one about dyeing from Fiona Nisbett, a weaver, spinner and handknitter. Alas I'm not sure there were enough handouts - I did get one sheet, haven't had a chance to look at it yet. Monday night's entertainment was a magician with a difference - he explained the psychology of distraction, but we still can't figure how he made a silk hanky get from his hand into someone's handbag.

Tuesday I had Beryl Jarvis talking about mosaic knitting, and how to design a mosaic pattern and generate a punchcard pattern for it. After lunch it was alternative edgings with Anne Smith - as it was called "Cutting Edge" I have to admit I was expecting cut and sew, but it was quite interesting nonetheless. Lastly a lecture with Iris Bishop - lots of inspirational techniques. Tuesday night it was a fashion show by Clair Crowston. By all accounts, it was a little long - not sure we need to see a garment in more than one colour - but I can't really comment as I went to bed early hoping that a "run up" of a quiet read would help my sleep (it didn't).

Wednesday it was a practical with Beryl - I had decided to do a simple "skull" pattern, and amazingly managed to punch out a card first time with no mistakes (there's a first time for everything!).


Tuck (top) makes his eyes pop. Slip (bottom) is more square and precise.



I think you'll agree, the card looks nothing like a skull. Incidentally, the right hand side of that card just knits a waffle stitch pattern which is quite nice as it is! :)

After lunch, it was hands-on with Iris Bishop - she's been experimenting with DK and thicker yarns using tuck lace and knitweave.


These came out ok although personally I'm not fond of bottle green :)

Last lecture was finishing touches with Anne Smith - this I assumed would be about different making up methods, but turned out to be how to make your garment so interesting that people won't notice the finishing! To be honest, I'm pretty sure this lecture was given as a closer in 2009, when it was how to make certain "standard" cards (ie the ones that come with the machine) more interesting by adding beads, changing colours, etc. I recognised the swatches - somewhat disappointing to have it recycled, because I would have picked something else if I'd realised. Wednesday evening we had an interesting talk by Nick of Uppinghams about the process of sheep to finished garment in the industry - I wasn't going to stay, but it was interesting and informative. They leave the garments with a closed neck until after dyeing, because the machinery would chew it up otherwise.

Thursday I was scheduled for browsing time (Uppingham Yarns being in attendance), so I slipped into Bill King's dimensional knitting lecture. I knew I'd fall off the yarn diet otherwise (sorry Nick!). Bill gave a demo of how to do a short-row "wiggle" that can add interest to the Gold Star cardigan. After lunch it was a hands-on with Clair Crowston, doing alternate edge finishes that don't need a ribber - quite appropriate for me at the moment, as the KH950i is ribberless.


Top to bottom: Picot edging, "lace" with show-through, lovely ridgy edging made with lace transfers (I love this!) and scalloped edge, which looks padded but isn't!

Lost some time in this lecture as I managed to completely jam the machine at one point and Mark was called, muttering "Vandals!" :) Then it was back to Bill King for manual transfer techniques, where he demonstrated his ingenious method of doing cables without having to cross both sides - basically you leave a gap at one end and move every other cable over. Ingenious and so simple!

Thursday night was the eagerly anticipated fashion show of the garments knitted for Nick of Uppinghams. There were two bags - and 10 jumpers I think. 90% of the jumpers were a great fit - but the last one, ably modelled by Bill King - turned out to be a cropped top designed for a 10 year old girl (I was sitting next to the perpetrator!). Despite making it impossible for an adult to wear it, Bill managed it and camped it up a treat - it barely covered his nipples. Very, very funny - no idea how next year's competition will top that!



The finished jumper modelled by Nick (see above) was done on a Passap E6000 by Anne Baker. I gather she's sick of the sight of it, so you'll be seeing it at the shows. It contains fairisle of all Nick's interests. I love the little cones of yarn which have "mystery yarns" from previous Dream Weeks. Second prize went to a dark mustard jumper with an all-over garter stitch pattern.

The final lecture on Friday was a talk by Bill and Anne about the history of machine knitting, and how the HP system originated with sewing machines. Apparently Toyota knitting machines were unceremoniously pulled from manufacture when the MD's wife learnt that Toyota weren't number one in the UK market at that point, leaving Jones-Brother and Empisal-Knitmaster-Silver to fight it out. Such a pity, as they were well made and had the Simulknit feature which nobody else had. Bill also showed us an old punchcard - before they were made to work continuously - which meant a great big red STOP line! :)

Good news about the Nottingham show - Harvey Haddon sports centre is being knocked down and rebuilt over the next three years, but the show will run on 14th April 2013 at a new venue, although Alan Hunt is retiring so it will be run by Anne Smith. I hope it doesn't impair the quality of the show, although the venue is smaller so the fashion show won't happen, which is a pity.

Got straight onto the motorway after dropping some folks back to the hotel, and completely forgot to say goodbye to a few people (sorry!). Came home to a lovely bar of white choc and a bottle of wine, courtesy of himself - what a sweetie!

All in all, a very good week! Haven't rebooked yet but pretty sure I will, not least because Ozlorna and Ozism are hoping to be there too.

Got to dash off now as the 'fridge is pretty empty and it's Heritage weekend so I plan on visiting a few places for free whilst the weather is good.

More Dream Week photos here

MKKI day, May 5th, 2012

I promised to do a review of the MKKI day last weekend, so here it is. Apologies if I ramble somewhat, as mentioned before, work's been really busy, and the office move has meant extra chaos and stress - printers beeping all day because they keep jamming (because we couldn't locate the A4 paper to refill them), drilling, etc. I'm sure it'll all come together, but it's going to take a few weeks yet I think. Couple that with lots of quotes going on (which is GOOD news, of course!) and it makes for one frazzled steelbreeze with airhead brain. It will take me a week or two to top my sleep back up I think.

The original idea was formed as a result of two things - a meet up last year with various Ravellers, and also the idea of the workshop days that Manor House mk group organise. Bearing in mind that most knitting machine manufacturers are no longer in production, it's rather hard to see a live knitting machine in use (especially the Passap as it is not very portable). My favourite room at Metropolitan is the "museum" room, with all the vintage machines, and lots of the Ravellers have these machines. So, a vague idea formed that we would all meet up with our various machines and have a bit of a play on them. Of course, I would take all of my machines (which is almost in double figures - how did that happen?).

Getting a bit nearer to the event, I checked out the insurance aspects, and discovered that contents insurance  only covers personal possessions outside the home if you damage them yourself. If someone else damages them, forget about it - you are not insured. Then of course there was the electrical aspect of some of the machines - PAT testing would be required. With all the red tape to wade through, I can see why people don't organise more events. If the Guild hadn't kindly offered to let us use their public liability insurance, the event would not have gone ahead at all, as it would have made a loss - I would have been happy to break even, of course. I had to draft up a disclaimer to cover the machine aspects, and I visually PAT tested the electrical items before they were plugged in (which is all you can do for 1980s electronics apparently).

It doesn't take much to disrupt my sleep at the best of times, but worrying about the legal aspects, combined with work pressures and other events meant I pretty much gave up on sleep for the fortnight proceeding the event, only sleeping every other night or only getting a few hours. Still, it meant I lost 8 pounds in weight, and I got plenty of typing done. I rang Covknit in a blind panic, and she kindly offered to help out with the programme and the typing up. Couldn't have done it without her - lack of sleep meant my mind was driven to distraction, so clear thinking went out of the window. Turns out she used to organise events for a rotary club, so she was perfect, and logically thought of lots of things we should pack that I'd not even thought of. The venue wasn't as large as I remembered (thank goodness for measuring it up, and taking photos), and there was a large stack of easels in one corner that we needed to work around. This actually helped me decide which machines I must bring, and which would have to stay behind - and meant I could cancel the transit van I'd booked, because that would have come out of my own pocket, and being a bank holiday weekend would cost me more for the extra day.

So I took Friday off to load the cars and print up programmes and posters. As it turned out, had I gone into work I'd've only got an hour's work done anyway, as I had a dental appointment first thing (two fillings needed! Boo!) and the servers were going down at noon. I spent the day packing the cars and rationalising what I was taking, then making a trip to Sainsers for nibbles and supplies.

By 6am the next morning I was raring to go, and I unearthed the Cog with breakfast (works every time!). We were outside the venue and unlocking just after 8am - and HilaryGermany surprised us both by being there before us (she and hubby drove from Suffolk). I spent two hours unpacking and arranging things as everyone arrived. We had a sales table in the kitchen area with lots of magazines and other goodies.

rmbroo started off with a description of her vintage record machine, which is a glorified knitting loom that does garter stitch. Alas it doesn't work at the moment because one of the feet is damaged - they look like wedge-shaped door stops and control the tension of the machine. HilaryGermany demonstrated her Passap Duomatic, which I think could probably take a whole day in itself, they are such interesting machines. I demoed the circular sock machine, the Hague linker, and the Weavemaster. The latter didn't go to plan as I pulled the wrong lever and the warp came out. Yes, I had forgotten how ruddy fiddly it is - and it's not possible to set it up beforehand, because the machine isn't clamped down and would get damaged in transit, so it's not very portable. Kathy demonstrated her KISS knitting frames, which are very cleverly made modular knitting frames. Martync demonstrated seaming on the knitting machine and navajo plying using an electric spinning wheel. I got my garter carriage working and then tested three others - we couldn't get them working properly because we didn't have the right rails, but they appeared to function correctly so I see no reason why they shouldn't work on the correct machine. Cynthia gave us a short talk on tips and tricks she's picked up during her many years as a machine knitter. Bookishbee brought an MK70 which has a fascinating pulley device for tensioning yarn - no taking your eyeballs out with tension wires.

Of course, it was all over far too quickly. We were packed and ready to go by 5pm, and nipped around the corner for pizza. It was lots of fun, and I think most people enjoyed themselves. Not sure if I want to do it again just yet - I need to let the dust settle, and my brain/sleep to recover - but there's definitely some interest in another event like this. I think next time I would simplify it by having folks only bring one machine, and maybe bring a pot luck lunch.

Trying to set up a Weavemaster - this was before it went pear-shaped.

Demoing the Hague linker

Brother's toy machine - sooo pink, sooo cute!

Lots of knitting machines to play with.

HilaryGermany demonstrating the deco

The CSM in action

More photos here

Current mood: exhausted

New acquisition

This is my new-to-me Toyota knitting machine (a KS858). I put it through its paces on Sunday.





It is a 12 st punchcard machine and also has 12 buttons. Unfortunately, buttons 9-12 are a little dodgy, and like to deselect themselves. It's got a brand-new Brother sponge bar in (couldn't get a Knitmaster bar) and it was a very tight fit, so it won't be coming out again in a hurry. Am keeping the original bar though for reference - it is narrower.

Not sure how you would pattern on this machine once the ribber was in place, as the patterning lever would hit the ribber.

Been a bit slack lately in photographing finished projects, here for your delight and delectation a pair of handknitted socks in Regia Pompon:



They are a bit sloppy, but great for around the house, and very cosy.

Current mood: happy

History of Toyota Knitting Machines

Found a folder full of interesting knitting history in amongst the stuff I am selling for a friend. Thought this might interest the Toyota owners (not sure if the machine history is complete):

Company Profile

Aisin Seiki Co Ltd, founded in 1949 as a manufacturer of automotive parts and sewing machines, has since grown into a principal international supplier of components for engines, driving systems, suspension, brakes, clutches and bodies, as well as home appliances and industrial machinery.

An important member of the Toyota Group, which supplies parts to the Toyota Motor Corporation, Aisin is also known for its strong independence. For home use, Aisin manufactures knitting and sewing machines, electric appliances, and beds: for industrial use, it makes precision metal molds, large transfer machines, and sewing machines.

Aisin’s intensive research and development continues to produce new products and improve on existing ones, such as metallic fibres, cryogenic freezers, the Stirling engine, and a drive unit for artificial human hearts.

As leader of the Aisin Group, which comprises eight affiliated companies in Japan, Aisin confidently offers innovative high-quality products and home and internationally. The company has nine subsidiaries overseas and one affiliate each in North America, Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.

History of Toyota Knitting Machines

1954 Model NT10 - pitch 5.5mm, 170 needles, sliding handle, hanging weights style. Single knitting machine of needle orerating type

1955 Model MT20 – pitch 4.5mm, 170 needles, sliding handle, one ste bed dropping, one pitch swing. Double bed knitting machine

1959 Model K202 – 180 needles, two step bed dropping, 10 pitch swing, 3 colour changing device. Double bed knitting machine

1960 Model K104 – 210 needles, wide stainless steel bed, fixed handle, non-hanging weights style. Single bed knitting machine

1962 Model K106 – needle selection mechanism built into the carriage. Single bed knitting machine

1965 Model 109 – needle selection mechanism built into the carriage, limited number of needle selections. Single bed with pattern trace knitting

1969 Model K600 – needle selection mechanism built into the carriage, 12sts in one punchcard, built-in weaving pattern device, lace carriage. Single bed with easy operation of fairisle knitting

1971 Model 700 – single bed knitting machine with knit tracer (optional)

1972 Model 210 – pitch 3.63mm, 252 needles, two step bed dropping. Double bed knitting machine

1972 Model KR450 – pitch 4.5mm, 200 needles, step bed dropping. Rib knitting machine.

1977 Model KS787 – Carriage needle selection mechanism, 24 stitches in one punchcard, manual selection of 12 stitches, motif magic, attachable knit tracer. Single bed knitting machine

1981 Model KS901 – Carriage needle selection mechanism, 24 stitches in one punchcard, lace carriage needle selection, motif magic, extended pattern, transferring stitch lace by lace carriage

1981 Model KR501 – two yarn feeders, fold down style handle, built-in feature called Simulknit (no slack yarn on the back).

Edit 7-6-2024: There are lots of manuals for Toyotas here